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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

For i have no right to present a critique on something that I do not understand completely. These are just some trains of thought that stemmed from watching The Dark Knight Rises.

I thought it was going to be another typical-dynamic(excuse my oxymoron) action movie with a twisting plot and a sigh-worthy ending. I was not wrong.

But The Dark Knight Rises struck out to me as an eccentric piece, shadowing the other superhero movies. But not necessarily in a good way. Sure, the movie had clear direction and very strong cast with incredible portfolios and Oscar-nominations, but the plot and execution of the story were injected with too many ideologies which in my opinion has distracted away from the innocent enjoyment of the movie. It is thought-provoking and has led me to think about a bundle of the dilemmas of humanity in my short two hours in the cinema.

First, there is a question to the main plot of as to why Bane, the antagonist of the movie, heeds to the plan of destroying the city of Gotham? And what made him do everything he did without any show of emotion? It was said in the movie that he was the sole protecter of Talia, the daughter of Ra's al Ghul when she was in the prison that held her mother and her captive. The narration spoke of how Bane believed the young child was a gift and should be protected and valued. It puzzled me as to why a man of his background, broken and left in a well of despair, would still be capable of believing in such abstract ideas of freedom and love.

And it bugged me(a lot) that the daughter of the warlord who fell in love with the soldier was actually allowed to replace the soldier in prison even when she was with child! This is an absurd idea that baffled me as it was downright stupid. Was the government or the mafia or whoever was in charge there stupid or something? The bartering of human prisoners was a route that was approved by the simple-minded. How on earth would someone else take a place of someone in prison? The whole idea of a prison is to keep the bad guys IN! Not let their pregnant lovers be all selfless and surrender their freedom in exchange for the bad guys! Yes, I am angry with fictional characters but their idiocy reflected some of the bad norms that are happening around us today.

The whole freaking incident originated from that stupid move. If the so-called 'warlord' kept his daughter from going into prison, Talia would have not been 'born in hell and raised in darkness'(quoted from the movie). She wouldn't have been broken and messed up! This branch of thoughts led me to think about the families of the criminals today. How are society treating them? Will they be able to live freely like the others without the despising of others? Are they being properly taken care of by the social workers and our government to ensure a mentally healthy mindset for the future?

Thanks to the movie, my love for sociology and understanding the social world was again reaffirmed. I came to realise that although often seen as a cycle of circular arguments and complications of different theoretical angles, the social sciences play a HUGE part in developing and sustaining the equilibrium of our world.

The bad guys in the movie knew this concept and used it to their advantage. They took over Gotham and declared that the city would truly belong to the people. The people were liberated to do anything they want. They were falsely led to believe that they were truly living in economic and class equality. It was shown in the movie that for the first few days chaos erupted throughout the city. People were free to rob houses and commit oneself in any activity they pleased.

However, after a certain period of time, the anomic times struck. It is to my belief that the people started to question their own moral paradigm and how it does not match with the new macro-structure of Gotham. Therefore, it is shown that the collective conscience and the socialisation of people still root deep into their mindsets and would steer them back in the right direction. The scenes of the streets of the city empty without any civilians are depicted to engage the audiences into the fact that true oppression had hit Gotham as no one was out and the people had woken up from their short time of blinded liberation.

The free-ing of the city also showed subtle hints of the communism ideology. The rich were forced to attend a sentence hearing and killed. The bad guys got the peoples' support as the application of this theory pleased the working class which was the majority.

With that thread of questions and muddled answers, I think that The Dark Knight Rises does not perpetuate typical gender stereotypes on Catwoman which is very well-received. Catwoman does not use her sexuality to get her way or trick men, much unlike the norm of action movies which is never without a woman who uses her sexuality and feminine power on others and herself. Kudos to Hathaway who is still one of my favourite actresses that never fails to bring the right attitude to the character.

The Dark Knight Rises.

It gave me thrills and chills with Bane's disturbing violence and the prospects of destroying of an entire city. It made me gasp and sigh as the storyline twists and turns. It was a somewhat enjoyable movie.